Heidi's Horse is an analysis of a child's artistic life. As it records the mental process involved in creating a work of art, it reveals that in their drawings all children sequentially obey universal imperatives which are identical to those in the history of mankind's art. It demonstrates that art is a second language: logical, orderly, systematic, abstract, subtle, serious, and humorous; a way to say something about the world that words can't say. Sylvia Fein examines the miraculously valid reasoning in children's drawings and recounts the development of visual intelligence between the ages of two and seventeen. Two hundred and fifty drawings, presented chronologically, accompanied by terse analytic text, show how a child's mind builds strategies for solving increasingly involved artistic problems and how genuine creativity, when properly stimulated, can sustain itself. Heidi's Horse is a valuable tool for teachers of art and elementary education, specialists in early childhood education, parents, and practitioners and investigators in the fields of creativity, self- motivation, thinking, and learning.

(From Goodreads)